Pattison, Eliot

The American author and lawyer, Joseph Eliot Pattison, was born in Philadelphia. He grew up on a farm run by his father; his mother was a bank official. As a child, he devoured books and often disappeared into the forest to read. An aunt who was a librarian in the American army used to supply him with literature from the various countries where she was stationed. Pattison himself says that the books gave him an appetite for different subjects, odd genres and the desire to visit other countries.